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It never ceases to amaze me the level of quality entertainment Pixar has been able to inject into computer-animated films. They've released eight previous feature films and not one of them has been a dud. That's more than most film studios can claim and definitely a far cry from the rest of the animated sewage that has been pumped into theatres in the past decade. Pixar always outshines the rest and their ninth feature, Wall*E, is no exception.

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With his E.T-like face and cute personality, Wall-E is a robot who works amid piles of trash in the animated film 'Wall-E.' CNS Photo courtesy of Disney/Pixar.

Wall*E paints a bleak picture of our future on this planet and the future of mankind in general. It opens with a stunning overhead cityscape, skyscrapers spiraling up toward the camera. It takes a second to realize there are as many towering piles of garbage as there are buildings. Amidst the rubble one little robot works diligently, organizing and piling the garbage into tidy stacks...He's Wall*E, or "Waste Allocation Load Lifter - Earth Class" and he's the last of his kind in operation. His lonely little existence began when humans filled up the world with so much garbage they had to leave the planet on a luxury starliner (aka cruise ship), leaving robots to clean up the mess while they were gone.

Seven hundred years later and the mess is still there, the humans are still in space, and Wall*E is alone with his cockroach friend and a worn out videotape of Hello Dolly. His solitude is disrupted when a shuttle comes to earth and ejects a small, graceful little robot named EVE (Extraterrestrial Vegetation Evacuator). Eve has been sent to look for signs of life back on earth and she performs her job with extreme efficiency... so extreme that she nearly blasts holes in anything that moves, including poor Wall*E. He becomes infatuated with her from a distance but it takes a while for the two to gain each others trust and when they do he falls head over, well...wheels in love with her.

Things go wrong for Wall*E when Eve finally does detect life, in the form of a small plant, and her automatic programming takes over. The shuttle returns to collect the specimen which is housed inside of Eve and Wall*E, trying to rescue her, goes along for the ride winding up aboard the human starliner. Let's just say that 700 years of relaxation and gluttony haven't done good things to our waistlines.

This movie has a lot to say about the future of our society. With the age of consumerism well under way we're producing more trash than we know what to do with. This movie carries the message that we're a throw-away society and are treating our resources as though they're just as disposable. Now, of course, that won't prevent Disney/Pixar from making a mint off of Happy Meal toys and movie related merchandise (most of which will end up in a landfill), but at least the intentions are good. And the thinly disguised jabs at massive corporations like Wal-Mart don't go unnoticed or unappreciated.

This is a beautiful film on every level. The story is effective, the musical score is lovely and the characters are endearing. Despite having next to no dialogue these little robots have so much charm. Eve is graceful and the scenes of her floating peacefully around are almost magical to watch. Wall*E himself has more personality in his mechanical little finger than most people do in their entire organic bodies!

I loved Wall*E. With the amount of garbage in this world it's great to see that Pixar continues to create films that are anything but.

Check out previous reviews at PopcornPhilosophy.com!